This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Day 17, Chapter 17 of our look together through the
book of Genesis. Yesterday, we looked at this do-it-yourself faith that Abraham
struggled with, that I struggle with, that I would guess you struggle with from
time to time. This tendency that we have towards what I would call a
human-powered faith.

We call it faith in God, but it's really powered by my emotion, my action, my
decision. It's powered by myself. It's not really faith at all.

It's a faith that's about me getting what I want. How do you get past that? How
do you get past a faith that's just getting God to do what you want?

How do you get to a faith that's about living as God desires? Well, God helps
Abraham with this, and he wants to help you and I with this. In Chapter 17, we
see that he does two things for Abraham, and he wants to do the same two things
in my life and in your life to help us to get past trusting in ourselves, to
grow towards trusting in him.

What did he do for Abraham? What does he want to do for you and I? Number one,
he gave him a new name, and number two, he gave him a new command.

Those are the two ways that God can help you to stop trusting in yourself and
start trusting in him. A new name and a new command. First a new name.

Chapter 17, verses one to five, let me read those verses. When Abram was 99
years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty. Walk before me
and be blameless.

I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your
numbers. " Abram fell face down and God said to him, "As for me, this is my
covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations.

No longer will you be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham, for I have made
you the father of many nations. " Which is what Abraham means, the father of
many nations.

You see in these verses what God is doing. He is reaffirming his promise in
Abraham's life. That's the life of faith that God has for you, of reaffirming
the faith that you and I have in Jesus Christ.

He's helping him to set aside a "get it myself" faith. But when you do that,
when you set aside "I'll trust in myself" faith, it's not like you're condemning
yourself to a miserable life. God has a promise for your life.

Setting aside your plans means you begin to live, decide to live by his promise.
And if you're going to live by God's promise, you have to have it reaffirmed
again and again and again. And one of the ways that God reaffirms his promise,
one of the ways that God gets you off of trusting yourself and on to trusting in
him, is by reminding you of this new name.

Now it's interesting, before God gives Abraham his new name, he gives Abraham a
new name for God. It begins by saying, these verses begin by saying, "I am God
Almighty. " There are many Hebrew names for God, Hebrew is the language the Old
Testament was originally written in.

And Elohim is the name for God that has been used up until this verse. But here
a new name is introduced. In Hebrew it's El Shaddai.

El Shaddai means the God who is sufficient. Abraham, we've seen it in his life,
he has not always seen God as sufficient. That's why he's run down to Egypt
anytime when it looked like there wasn't enough food.

He had to find something that was sufficient. And even in this chapter, Abraham
is later going to say that God is insufficient to provide a son. To grow by
faith, Abraham needed a new way to look at God.

You need to see, I need to see God more clearly also. The more clearly that you
understand who God is, the more clearly you're going to be able to walk in
faith. And many times my need, your need, it's the same as the need of Abraham,
to see that he is the God who is sufficient.

But it's interesting how God does that. God shows Abraham, and he shows you and
he shows me that he is sufficient, not just by pointing us to his name, but also
by pointing us to the new name he wants to give to us. Here he says, "No longer
Abram, but now Abraham.

" You've noticed as I've been teaching through this, I go back and forth between
Abram and Abraham. It's here that the change really happens. His new name, from
Abram to Abraham, he's going to change Sarai's name also, from Sarai to Sarah,
Abram, exalted father, to Abraham, father of many, Sarai, my princess, to Sarah,
which just means princess.

Now why does God do this? It doesn't sound, as I just shared those with you a
moment ago, it doesn't sound like that big a change. Why does God do this?

He does this to help them to recognize the changes that had occurred in their
lives, the new things that he had done. A new name helped them to constantly
realize that they were new people living in a new place with God's new promise,
and by seeing that, they could begin to act in that way. When you begin to see
who you really are in Jesus Christ, you can begin to really act like who you
really are in Jesus Christ.

God's changed your name too, and you and I, we need to recognize and live out
those new names. To Abraham he said, "No longer shall your name be called Abram,
but from now on Abraham. " What does he say to you?

To you he says, "No longer shall your name be called lost, but your name shall
be called found. " Now, you may feel lost sometimes, but that's not your name in
Jesus Christ. What has been lost has been found.

You are found by him. You are his sheep. He is your shepherd.

That is who you are. However you feel, whatever you happen to experience this
day, that is who you are, so you live out that name. No longer lost, but found.

That's not the only name. No longer shall you be called guilty, but now you
shall be called forgiven. You may feel guilty today, and maybe with good reason.

Maybe you've walked away from trusting the Lord in some situation of life, some
thought in your mind, some action, some word to another person. No longer shall
you be called guilty. If you try to get back to a sense of connection with God
by feelings of guilt, that's not the new name he's given you.

The new name is forgiven. He's forgiven you because of what Jesus Christ has
done. So you recognize that new name, and then you begin to live out that new
name.

And if it means asking for forgiveness from someone that you've wronged, that's
what you do. If it means recognizing God's new grace in your life, and that he's
forgiven you for that wrong that you did that hurt yourself, that's what you do.
If it means that you don't put yourself in a situation where you're going to sin
again, you know that circumstance is always going to lead you down a wrong path,
that's what you do.

But you do it based on your new name, not your old name. You are forgiven. No
longer shall you be called lost, but now found.

No longer guilty, but now forgiven. No longer shall you be called alone, but now
loved. No longer shall you be called empty, but now filled.

Just read the New Testament and see your new name. And let me just remind you of
this. It is never too late to change your name.

It is never too late to begin to see yourself in a new way and to continue to
grow, to live out that new name. Abram was 99 years old when he became Abraham,
when his name was changed. That should tell you something.

It is never too late. How does God get us off of living for ourselves, trusting
ourselves, and trusting in him? He gives us this new name, and he says, "Now
live that out.

" He also gives us a new command. He does this for Abraham. In verses 9 to 13,
here's the command that was given.

Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your
descendants after you and the generations to come. This is my covenant with you
and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep. Every male among
you shall be circumcised.

You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between
me and you. For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days
old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with
money from a foreigner, those who were not your offspring. Whether born in your
household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised.

My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. " There's a lot
about circumcision in the Old Testament and even some in the New Testament. What
is it all about?

It's about God's command. It's about God's requirement. God gives to Abraham
this new command, and to grow in faith, you and I have to be meeting the
requirements of God in our lives, but they are different now for us as
believers.

Here Abraham hears that for his people, the Jewish people, the requirement is
the requirement of circumcision. Why circumcision? I mean, Abraham must have
thought a tattoo might have been nice, but instead God says circumcision.

You might, in your mind, think this. God is giving to Abraham a new identity, a
new name, but also through this command a new identity, a new identity for his
people, and the idea that God is putting before Abraham here is not a medical
practice so much as a decision to follow God's command, as a decision to do what
God has asked. In the New Testament we read very clearly that there is no
spiritual reason for circumcision.

You might want to do it for some medical reason, you might want to do it for
some reason culturally, but there is no spiritual reason for circumcision. It
means nothing, we're told very clearly in the New Testament for you and I as
believers. But you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, there is a required sign
that we do have of our faith.

It's called baptism. Jesus commanded baptism for believers. Just like Abraham
heard God's command that Jews should be circumcised, Jesus commands that
everyone who is a believer in him should be baptized.

Baptism doesn't make you a Christian, it's an outer symbol of an inward
commitment, and it's commanded. We are to be openly and publicly the people of
God, not ashamed to identify, there's that identity again, to identify with
Jesus Christ and with his people. Have you followed that command?

You think I don't have to to be a Christian? Following this new command, and
then all of his commands after that, is one of the ways that you and I deal with
this tendency that we have to trust in ourselves instead of trusting in God. If
you're going through the commands of God and you're picking and choosing and
you're saying, "Well, I'll keep this one, but this one isn't convenient for me.

My family might be upset by this one. This one doesn't make as much sense to
me," then you're going down a road that is a do-it-yourself faith, and you're
going to see the results of that in your life. There's this new command.

Now there's a warning in this. God requires circumcision of the heart for the
Jewish people. And there was a day in the Jewish nation where they were
circumcised outwardly, but their hearts were very far from God, and God
condemned them for that.

And you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, baptism is not just an outward
symbol. If you think you're going to become a Christian by being baptized, if
you mistake the sign of the faith, the picture of the reality for the real
faith, the reality, that doesn't mean a thing to God. So we're not talking about
just symbols here.

We're talking about following Him, keeping His command. You want to get off of
trusting in yourself and get towards trusting in God. I struggle with it.

We all struggle with it. How do you do that? You recognize your new name, and
you live that out, who He's already made you to be.

Not who you're trying to be, who He's already made you to be. And you recognize
His new command. And beginning with the simplest that you know to do first, and
then building on that, you do what He's asked you to do.

And based on that, you and I find that we begin to live in a greater way than
you ever imagined, a life of faith. Jesus Christ, as we talk to you, we want to
live a life of faith. And yet, you know how easily we trust in ourselves.

I do. We trust in what we think is right. We trust in what we think is wrong.

Lord Jesus, help us to trust You. And as we see the new name You've given us,
forgiven, free, my child, as we see that new name, as we follow Your commands
because we love You, not because we're afraid of You, I pray, Lord, that You
bring into our lives a new and deeper sense of trusting You. Help us to grow in
faith, we pray.

In Your name, amen. And join us tomorrow as we look at chapter 18. We're going
to look at the difference between Your plans and God's plans.